DIY for Homeowners

This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign. THD provided the DeWalt Brad Nailer used in this post.

We often come up with project ideas independently of each other, and then need to convince the other of the merits of the project. Sometimes we just don't get the others' vision until the project has almost fully come together. This was one of those projects!

I (Vicki) had an idea for a landing/drop zone that I wanted for my back door. I use that entryway most often and needed to have a place to organize my stuff that comes and goes out of my house. As hard as I tried, I just couldn't get Steph to understand or see my vision for the drop zone utilizing a record cabinet as the foundation piece. It was only when the molding was tacked into place that she had that "ah ha" moment!

This is truly an upcycle project as it utilizes materials from three different pieces of furniture. None of the pieces of furniture were in good shape so I had no hesitation in utilizing the different parts.

Materials:

Mid Century record cabinet (The teak was in poor condition as were the legs. The piece was made of particle board with teak veneer. The particle board had gotten wet at some point damaging the bottom piece of the cabinet).

Boards from an old cabinet (This cabinet was build by my neighbor and when he moved out, he sold it to me. He had used it in his garage for tools and things. It was made of Douglas Fir plywood. It was really dirty).

Molding from a cedar cabinet (This was a mid century cabinet in poor condition. It would have needed a lot of work to restore. I didn't need a cabinet like this so I decided to use the molding from it for this project. The remainder of the wood will be used in the future).

Mid century legs (These are "new" but old. I found them at a yard sale. I got two sets of four, still in the packaging, that were originally sold at the now defunct hardware store, Scotty's).

Tools:

This old garage cabinet was massive. We used a reciprocating saw to demo it. We have a lot of materials left over for future projects.

The molding was surprisingly easy to remove from this old cabinet. A prybar and a hammer was all it took. It was just enough to upcycle into our new landing zone.

We started by cleaning the record cabinet really well and cutting off the damaged legs flush with the bottom shelf.

The top of the cabinet was open. We added a board across the top to give it more strength and stability.

Steph made pocket holes with the Kreg jig so the board would screw securely into the cabinet sides.

I wanted to cover all the damaged teak with the wood from the garage cabinet. The wood was cut to size to fit each of the sides, bottom and top. We used a circular saw with the Kreg rip-cut jig.

I saw this color in the October 2017 edition of HGTV Magazine and knew it would be perfect for this cabinet upcycle. (Bonus cover, page 40 The Real Teal, #P470-7, Behr) This color is really hard to photograph. This picture does not show its true color.

We used the DeWalt 18 gauge nailer to attach the outside boards as well as the trim. Prior to encasing the record cabinet in the "new" wood, we used the nailer to add some structural stability to the cabinet as some of the joinery was loose.

Product: DeWalt 18ga Brushless Brad NailerFav Feature: It fires correctly and precisely every time!What else can I do with this: Working on a small decor project or attaching trim in your house, this is a versatile tool! Strength/ Age Test: Of course Steph was able to use this with ease, but I could too! It's well balanced and not to heavy. I would not hesitate to use it on my own. -Vicki

We made a paper template so that all the legs would be positioned correctly.

The new board we added was even with the back edge, but was lower than the sides. We used paint sticks to help fill in the gap.

We only had one chance to get the molding miter cut correctly. We measured and planned before we made the first cut. We were successful!

Initially we were going to stain the sides, so we used a pre-stain conditioner.

We decided to not stain but use a finish of shellac.

The trim was glued and brad nailed into place.

The finished cabinet in its new home at my house. Notice one of the shelves and the vertical boards were not painted. Once the teak shelves were cleaned, I decided they were too beautiful to cover with paint. Compared to the rest of the cabinet, they were in almost perfect condition. By using stain on the molding and shellac on the sides, we were able to bring some continuity of color to the three types of wood.

This just makes me happy to look at, especially knowing the history of the three pieces from which it evolved! The color is a perfect, happy teal!

I now have a convenient place for all my stuff. I always have way too many pairs of shoes by the door, and now I can keep them all corralled into my drop zone.

What have you upcycled lately? What do you want to upcycle? Ever have trouble sharing your vision for a far out idea? Oh, is that just me?!

Check out a few more tool reviews from fellow #THDProSpective members:

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FYI: We are not professionals, and we don’t claim to be. This is what we found worked for our project. Yours may need a little different approach. Safety first!

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